Our Worship

John’s testimony was plain, simple, and direct. He wasn’t the Light, but he lived his life as a pointer to the Light. Praise God today for His light. Pray that your life would emanate light.

John 1:6-8 Common English Bible (CEB)

6 A man named John was sent from God. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning the light, so that through him everyone would believe in the light. 8 He himself wasn’t the light, but his mission was to testify concerning the light.

Our Longings

When you consider your deepest longing you identified these last two weeks, if this longing is fulfilled, how will it bring God’s Kingdom?

What are the things you do that block or deny this longing from being fulfilled?

We’ll keep these two questions in mind as we journey through this third week. Return to them often and listen for God’s voice.

Scripture

1 Thessalonians 5:19-21 Common English Bible (CEB)

19 Don’t suppress the Spirit. 20 Don’t brush off Spirit-inspired messages, 21 but examine everything carefully and hang on to what is good.

During the first week of Advent, I asked, “What are you most longing for during this season of Advent?”

We might imagine Jesus asking the rich young ruler this question with his response being:

I long to inherit eternal life.

As we moved into the second week of Advent, I encouraged you to bring before God your deepest desire that was surfacing and ask yourself, “What are you most hoping for when He comes? Why do you desire this? What does God think about it?”

We return to the rich young ruler:

I’m hoping for eternal life. I’m hoping you’ll tell me what I have to do to earn it because I want to participate in the divine. What does God think about it? I don’t know. He wants me to be good in order to save myself, I guess.

In this passage, we immediately see Jesus responding to all of the things the rich young ruler said he was doing by upping the ante to a soul-revealing place.

Jesus basically said – and notice how He relates to this man in the same style of language, in terms he could understand! Jesus always does this. He always meets us where we are:

Fine then. Go and sell all that you own. That’s the one step you’ve forgotten.

Now in our third week of wrestling with our longings, I asked, “When you consider your deepest longing you identified these last two weeks, if this longing is fulfilled, how will it brings God’s Kingdom? And, what are the things you do that block or deny this longing from being fulfilled?”

It’s so hard to be honest with ourselves of what we most deeply desire. The rich young ruler’s answer to this question of how his desire for eternal life would bring the Kingdom of God would have to reveal misplaced desires. He wanted to partake in the divine life while preserving his own life. This is why Jesus immediately moved the conversation to “who can be saved?”

The root desire here was for this ruler to have union with the divine without surrender. There was a good and true desire underneath this expressed desire, that of union, but the competing desire to own a life that stood apart was blocking the rich young ruler from seeing it.

Often, the desires we are most in touch with only cover up what we don’t want to give up in order to know our deepest desires we are often out of touch with.

Revisit the ‘Our Longings’ section and ask God to help you see how you might answer those questions with honesty and vulnerability.

Intercession

Pray that God would give you the gift of clear vision of what you most desire.

A Closing Prayer

Lord God,

Like the rich young ruler, I sometimes think I desire something – and often it’s some good thing I know would please you to provide – but this thing I desire is often covering up something I don’t want to give up.

I desire patience, sometimes, because it conceals my arrogance. When I think others are wrong, it’s easier for me to pray for patience than the humility to admit they might be right.

I pray for your good gift of generosity, because it’s secretly seducing for me to think of myself as higher up than those I’m giving to.

Lord, this Advent season, help me to live my truest desires.

Amen.

This evening, continue again to worship through Psalm 80:3 as a personal prayer. Return to this often over this Advent season.

Tomorrow morning, consider reading through this week’s scriptures in preparation for Christmas.

About Troy Walling

Troy Walling is the Executive Director and C.O.O. for The Leadership Institute. Troy loves writing about leadership development from a Christian perspective, spiritual formation and the role of spiritual practices therein, and organizational transformation.

Through engaging in scripture and meditation, we allow the Holy Spirit to guide us next to prayerfully intercede for those we love (INTERCESSION) .

We'll close with a suggested closing prayer you can pray along with, or you can use it as a springboard to close in prayer in any way you feel led (CLOSING PRAYER).

We’ll end our time with suggested questions or prayers to keep each day's reflection in mind during your evening prayers, as well as a prompt to start your day with the next morning (THIS EVENING AND TOMORROW MORNING).

You can feel free to utilize these Advent reflections in any way that draws you nearer to God’s presence, engaging only those elements out that seem to challenge you or bring you life. The scripture references will be compiled and listed at the bottom of each reflection (SCRIPTURES FROM OUR ADVENT SERIES) so you can return to them often as we journey together the next four weeks.

It’s a joy to be with you during this Advent season of discovering our true longing for God’s irresistibility!